


The Good Doctor

by SightlessSam



Category: Doctor Schneep, Doctor Schneeplestein - Fandom, Dr. Schneeplestein - Fandom, jacksepticeye, markiplier - Fandom, sean mclaughlin - Fandom
Genre: Doctor Schneeplestein - Freeform, Dr. Schneeplestein - Freeform, Markiplier - Freeform, Other, Schneep - Freeform, jacksepticeye - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2018-04-21
Packaged: 2019-04-25 16:31:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 6,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14382585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SightlessSam/pseuds/SightlessSam
Summary: Henrik Von Schneeplestein is haunted by the stresses of being the Good Doctor, but when Jim from WJIM Channel 4 News comes poking around his hopsital, the darkness begins to creep up on him. What secrets lie within Redemption Hospital? What dark discoveries threaten Jim's life?Come, good Reader, and hear the story of "The Good Doctor."





	1. Dream Anxiety Disorder

Doctor Henrik Scneeplestein made his way down the hall slowly, but with purpose. The bright lights glared against the harsh, clinical white walls and pale blue floor, threatening to sterilize his vision. He had spent hour on his last operation. Despite the success, and the joy he felt for having saved another one, his head was spinning. Lack of food and sleep were beginning to wear him down. No matter, he would rest soon. First he had to tell the family that

their beloved mother was safe and sound for now.

He pushed through the doors to the central commons area where the nurses station was, and waved to the current nurse behind the desk. She gave him a friendly, but strained smile. She must have been there as long as he had.

Past the nurses station, and past the elevators was the waiting room where he could see the family waiting as patiently as they could. The father was pacing still, the son doing his best to ease him into rest, with the young daughter curled up asleep on the couch, her coat thrown over her like a blanket to keep her warm. The doctor paused before entering the room, taking a deep breath as he fumbled habitually with the stethoscope around his neck.

The son saw him first, and paused his ranting with his father which caused the father to pause in his pacing. The son reached down and tapped at the sister who sat up straight as if she had been awake the whole time. All of them had a look of dread in their eyes.

Doctor Schneeplestein forced a tired but genuine smile onto his face and stepped through to give them all the good news. Even before he stepped past the threshold, the father was sending prayers of thanks to the Heavens above.

“She iz well,” Schneeplestein assured them in his odd accent, “Ze blood clots were a concern, but not anymore! She vill be on medication for the rest of her life, but she is alive, and zat is ze most important part!”

“You did it!” said the father in amazement.

He grasped the good doctor by the shoulders, smiling brightly as he said again, “You did it! You did it!”

The father’s hands slipped up Schneeplestein’s shoulders. With an elated smile, the father grasped a little tighter. His fingers pressed in, digging uncomfortably into Schneeplestein’s skin. The man was so excited that he must not have known his own strength. Schneeplestein reached up and placed his hands over the man’s fingers in attempt to pry them off, but the man had a grasp on the doctor that would not be broken.

“You did it!”

The man’s toothy grin strained. His brows furrowed, and his nose wrinkled.

“ _You_ did it!”

Doctor Schneeplestein watched in horror as the man’s face warped into a maddening, unbridled rage. His fingers were around the doctor’s neck now, pressing in at the soft tissue, cutting off circulation.

 _“You did it!”_ The man cried again.

Doctor Schneeplestein could feel his windpipe collapsing. He struggled to get the man off of him, but his grip was relentless. The pressure in his head throbbed as the man continued to squeeze and scream “You did it! You did it!”

Schneeplestein’s eyes darted around for any signs of help. The only thing still in focus of his blurry vision was the children off to the side staring at him in horror, and the red, twisted, infuriated face of the man who was destined to kill him.

“You did it!” the man continued to scream.

Schneeplestein’s arms and legs went slack. Pins and needles shot through him, and his tongue rolled wildly, writhing in his open mouth in attempt to dislodge the thumbs that were crushing down on his windpipe. He grasped desperately at the father’s arms, but his fingers had lost all feeling. He could hear the throbbing in his ears as his heart struggled and his lungs spasmed in a desperate plea for oxygen. Static sparkled around the edges of his vision. As he slowly sank down, the darkness reached up to swallow him whole.

_“YOU. DID. THIS!!!”_

Doctor Schneeplestein gasped loudly for air, and sat up straight, his eyes flinging wide open. He grasped at his neck as he gulped in the air, and felt no hands there. Schneeplestein whipped his head around and found no angry father, no horrified children; Just a silent, empty hospital room dimly lit with a bedside lamp.

Schneeplestein took a deep, calming breath to regulate his breathing, and wiped the sweat from his brow. His whole body was shaking from the nightmare.

“I couldn’t save her,” he mumbled to himself.

He stared down at his hands for a moment, contemplating the reality of the situation. They were clean, of course, but he could still see the blood on them. He had always heard that the first lost would haunt him forever, but he never realized just how true that statement was until that day.

“Doctor?”

Schneeplestein glanced up to see one of the nurses peeking into the room. Tall and brown-skinned with a hijab wrapped around her head, she was a soothing sight for the doctor. Nurse Malki had been a friend of his from the first day he began his practice at the hospital.

“Taking a bit of a rest?” the young lady asked, her British accent soothing to his soul.

“Come, sweet lady,” said Schneeplestein, motioning to the other bed in the room. “You have always been a good friend to me. Vill you sit a moment with me?”

“You’re still upset over losing Sarah,” Malki surmised.

He flinched upon hearing the woman’s name. It somehow made things even more real.

The doctor smiled weakly and replied, “Always a smart lady, you are.”

She blushed and waved it off. “Oh, thank you, but… it’s very obvious you are upset. We are very worried about you.”

“Ze first loss vill always haunt you,” he quoted, waving a finger in the air. “I vill need some time to overcome zis obstacle. But fear not! I vill come back stronger than ever, more determined. I am here to save lives!”

Malki giggled, and nodded her approval. “That is a very positive mental attitude you have, Doctor! We cannot save them all, but we must always do our best.”

“Zis is correct!” said Schneeplestein. “But alas, I think I should rest a while longer. I have a little time left on my break, and I am still tired from ze last patient.”

“I will leave you be then, my friend,” said Malki as she stood.

Doctor Schneeplestein laid back down as his friend made her way to the door. The nurse paused before exiting and glanced back at him. She was still very concerned for him. He was much more lethargic than usual, and was having nightmares more often. She mumbled something about medication, but when Schneeplestein perked up and asked what she had said, she simply smiled and said, “Nothing. Rest well, Good Doctor.”

She stepped out and closed the door to the room just enough to give him some privacy, leaving it open a crack. The doctor laid back down on the hospital bed and stared up at the ceiling, and let himself drift as close as he dared to sleep. Just as he began to doze off, he heard a voice over the intercom: _“Doctor Schneeplestein to A and E. Doctor Schneeplestein to A and E.”_

Schneeplestein’s eyes popped open. With a sigh, he sat up, stretched, and made his way out of the empty hospital room that had served as his temporary sanctuary.

“No rest for ze wicked!”


	2. Ventricular Septal Defect

Heart surgery had always been tricky. Open-heart was even more tricky. Doing it on a friend was nerve-wracking. But the Good Doctor knew what he was doing! Peter had been incredibly nervous before going under, but Schneeplestein had assured him that the procedure would be a success. He was Peter’s friend after all. Peter had been Schneeplestein’s accountant for years. Peter had insisted that Schneeplestein be the one to do his surgery. So, with deft, steady hands, and his assistant by his side, he guided the tools deep into the heart of the patient.

“Are you nervous, Jack?” Schneeplestein asked of his assistant. “Suction, please.”

“A little,” the assistant replied as he suctioned some blood from the patient.

“Zis is a fairly simple procedure,” said Schneeplestein, his eyes never leaving the task at hand. “Controversial? Yes. High mortality rate. But the procedure itself is easy. Ve just cut a little hole in ze heart to allow oxygen to mix in ze blood a little more. Normally done on infants only! But zis man is in need! And ze good doctor must do vat is necessary to save his friend!”

“Of course!” Jack replied.

The doctor hummed to himself as he maneuvered his utensils, listening closely to the monitors for any changes. The steady beep of the heart monitor reminded him that his patient was still alive, beeping along to the song the doctor hummed.

“Vere did you say you were from again, Jack?” Schneeplestein asked. 

“Westmeath,” his assistant replied. “In Ireland.”

“Mmmm! Beautiful place. I vas hoping to visit someday. It would be lovely to…”

The doctor paused. The rhythm of the heart monitor jumped slightly. Doctor Schneeplestein glanced up and noticed the heart rate rising. The brain patterns began to shift. The patient was waking up!

“Nurse!” Schneeplestein called, “Ze patient is waking up! Jack, call ze anesthesiologist!” 

The doctor quickly moved his hands, cutting and snipping where he had to while the calls were made. He had to get this done fast or the patient would wake up with a hole in his chest!

Peter’s fingers twitched. The anesthesia was wearing off at a phenomenal rate. The incessant beeping grew faster in tempo. The Doctor kept working, occasionally calling for the sweat to be wiped from his brow.

“Nurse!” he called again. “Jack, I need help here!”

He wouldn’t lose another one. He simply could not, and would not. Just a little more time! His eyes darted from the heart in front of him, to the monitors, to the patient who was now beginning to twitch and squirm.

“Hold him down!” Schneeplestein called, “Where is ze anesthesiologist?!”

Schneeplestein saw the heart in his hand flutter. He looked back up to the patient, and to his horror, Peter’s eyes fluttered open.

“Nurse!” Schneeplestein screamed. “Jack!  _ SOMEONE HELP!” _

The heart monitor went flat.

  
  



	3. Prazosin

It was hours later that they stitched Peter back up. Schneeplestein was absolutely livid. Never in his life had he had a patient wake up on him! He was surely going to have a talk with the board of directors about the Anesthesiologist’s malpractice!

But first, he needed food and rest. After he cleaned up, he made his way to the cafeteria where he grabbed something to eat. It wasn’t the greatest food, but he didn’t have the time or energy to leave and find anything better, and it certainly wasn’t the worst food he’d ever eaten, either.

He sat hunched over his food, chewing on his sandwich off in the corner of the cafeteria at a window that overlooked a garden. Patients strolled through the sunny area, chatting with loved ones here and there while enjoying the bright flowers and fountains. It was a very nice hospital. He enjoyed being there despite the stress. 

Occasionally, someone would pass by him in the cafeteria and greet him with a simple “Hello, Doctor!” He would pause his meal long enough to wave back, but generally did not feel the need to strike up any conversation. Not until his friend Nurse Malki stopped at his table.

“Hello, Henrik,” she said, using his first name. “How are you feeling?”

“A little tired, and a little upset,” said Schneeplestein.

“I don’t blame you,” said Malki. “Losing a second patient like that…”

Schneeplestein stopped, and looked Malki in the eyes. What did Malki mean by a second patient?

“Second patient?” Schneeplestein asked. “What do you mean?”

Malki’s brow pinched with sincere concern and confusion. She leaned in and said, “Doctor Schneeplestein, Peter died.”

“Wha…” The colour drained from Schneeplestein’s face. His mind raced back to his last operation, already beginning to formulate reasons that Malki could be mistaken. Surely she thought he’d had patients after Peter, or she forgot his last patient?

“Doctor,” said Malki in a low, concerned tone, “Don’t you remember what happened to Peter?”

“Peter!” Schneeplestein gasped, “But… I saved him!”

Malki’s eyes widened in horror, and she gasped. She shook her head and said, “No… Henrik… Peter died!”

It couldn’t be. Schneeplestein was there. He had stitched him back up himself. He saw Peter wake up! How could he be dead? His head was spinning. He tried to stand, but he stumbled over his chair. Malki grabbed him and tried to get him to calm down, that it was okay, but it wasn’t going to be okay! 

“Were is Peter?!” Schneeplestein called as he pushed away from her. “Where is Jack?! Jack was with me. He saw me save him!”

“Jack?” Malki asked. “Who is Jack?”

Malki looked around and saw others staring at them. She made a few quick and subtle gestures with her hand to signal for orderlies. A few of the doctors and nurses among them darted out of the room to get help, while one of the orderlies in the cafeteria made his way over to try and subdue the situation until the others got there.

“Jack!” Schneeplestein cried out. “How could you forget Jack?! He was my assistant that day! Irish man! He was from Westmeath!”

“Henrik!” Malki called, “There’s nobody here named Jack! Please, you’re going to harm yourself if you’re not careful!”

The orderlies had made their way in by now. Schneeplestein saw them, and knew what would happen next. They were going to take him away. He tried to run, but as he turned, they grabbed him and pulled himself down. He felt himself falling. Like slow motion he watched the world around him tip and wash to bright white.

“Schneeplestein!’ Malki called. “Schneeplestein!”

The doctor sat straight up. He was still in the cafeteria. He was still in his seat. He still had half a plate of food left on his tray. Malki was standing over him, hand on his shoulder, looking quite concerned.

“Oh my!” Schneeplestein gasped. “I cannot believe I fell asleep at ze table!”

“I cannot believe it either,” Malki replied, “Perhaps you need your medication adjusted?”

“Medication?” Schneeplestein asked.

The Doctor looked down at his tray. Sitting next to it was a pill box with a whole capsule and half a tablet left in it. He remembered now. The stress of the job had been getting to him, so he had been prescribed some medicine to help him relax and sleep.

“Ze life of a doctor is not an easy one,” said Schneeplestein. “I had a nightmare while I vas asleep! I dreamed that Peter died. But he did not! I saved him!”

Malki’s brow pressed with worry. She sighed and said, “You really should get more than a fifteen-minute nap in, Henrik. You don’t have anything else scheduled right now. You should sleep. Try to get some real rest? For me, please?”

“Very well, if you insist,” said Schneeplestein.

The doctor stood up slowly, forcing his knees to straighten enough to walk. He took the last of his pills, and swallowed the rest of his water down. Grabbing the last few bites of his sandwich, he made his way through the cafeteria, and down the hall, past the Nurse’s station that sat at the center of it all. One of the nurses -Nurse Betham- even waved to him and smiled. He did his best to return the smile, but between the last bite of sandwich and his exhaustion, his mouth ended up twisting oddly. It was no matter, Nurse Betham understood his intent.

He slipped down one of the currently unused hallways and made his way through the quiet solitude of the wing. There was nobody down there at the moment due to renovations being done in some of the rooms, but it was late at night, so nobody was there working on them. 

The solitude was a godsend. He slipped into one of the rooms and sat down in the empty room on the floor. It dimly lit by only the emergency lights, and it was quiet aside from the occasional distant page. Schneeplestein checked his phone out of habit. No new calls. He swiped over to his gallery and ran across a picture of Sarah at a party. He smiled and stared at it for a while, studying her pretty eyes. 

To the left of her, he noticed something he had not noticed before. In the background, staring right at him, was Peter. Schneeplestein narrowed his eyes to focus on the man. It was as if he was looking right at him, warning him to stay away from Sarah. Schneeplestein leaned in close, confused as to why he had not seen it before.

Peter’s face twisted up into a scowl. The phone screen cracked in his hand. Schneeplestein was so startled he nearly dropped the phone. Fumbling it, he caught it before it slipped out of his hand. When he flipped it up to look again, the crack was gone, and Peter was no longer looking right at him. Instead, he was looking at Sarah. More pointedly, he was looking at Sarah’s ass.

“I’m such a fool!” Schneeplestein lamented.

He didn’t want to linger on it anymore. He needed to keep his mind occupied. If he could do that, he wouldn’t have to see the things he didn’t want to. Schneeplestein stood, and made his way back out of the room and the wing. As he passed through the doors, he smacked right into someone coming out of a room, and nearly knocked him over. He stumbled to the side and saw a man as tall as him, brown-skinned, with distinct Korean eyes and a chin that suggested Germanic blood. He wore a pair of tan khakis and a sky-blue button-up shirt. The man startled upon seeing him, and looked ready to run off, but upon seeing the Doctor, he smiled and said, “Oh hello there!”


	4. Dyschronometria

“Are you a patient here?” Schneeplestein asked.

“Uh… Yes!” said the man, “My name is Jim… Jim Anchor.”

“Doctor Henrik Von Schneeplestein,” the doctor replied.

“You’re a doctor?” Jim asked.

“Yes! I have ze coat and my stethoscope! Vat else would I be?”

“Of course!” Jim replied, “Sorry…”

Jim lifted a hand to shake. The doctor was leary about him, unsure that he was actually a patient, but he shook the man’s hand anyway. The man’s eyes were constantly shifting, glancing around to see whatever it was he was obviously looking for. Schneeplestein suspected he might have been one of the psych ward patients if he was indeed admitted to the hospital.

“Jim Anchor, hmm?” Schneeplestein asked. “Vell, Jim, zis wing is off limits! Didn’t you know? It is being reconstructed! Patients should not be here!”

“Ah, yes, of course,” said Jim, “I just wanted to go for a walk and I must have gotten turned around.”

“You must have very bad eyesight if you did not see ze sign!” Schneeplestein replied, pointing to the sign

“Retinal Detachment,” was Jim’s response. Then he deflected by saying, “Hey, could I perhaps talk to you about this place? I get nervous in hospitals and such, but it makes me feel better when I can talk to a doctor about the history. Redemption seems like such a nice hospital.”

“Ah yes, it is very nice indeed!” said the doctor as he began down the hall. “Come, come. Let us go back to your room! Vich room would zat be?”

“Um… Room 203.”

“Ah! West wing!”

Jim followed along eagerly, a big smile on his face as he walked along with the good doctor. Their pace was casual as Schneeplestein lead the way towards the west wing and continued.

“Ve have been established for nearly two-hundred years now! Ve are not very large, but ve have ze latest technology and equipment. I would not worry about zis place. Your health is in good hands here.”

“That’s good to know,” said Jim, “How long have you been working here?”

“Ah, well, I’ve been working here for…”

The good doctor fell silent. Jim watched him scratch at his chin, confusion lingering in his eyes. Schneeplestein tried to think back to his earliest time there, but he found he could not quite recall. When  _ did _ he start there?

“Excuse me!” came an angry call.

The doctor was pulled from his reminiscing to see a nurse -Nurse Betham to be exact- and a few orderlies coming down the hall towards them at a pace that suggested they were on a mission.

“Sir, you are not allowed in here!” the nurse said to Jim.

Jim remained completely calm, and pulled out a lanyard to show some credentials as he explained who he was: “My name is Jim Anchor from WJIM Channel 4 news. I’m the host…”

“You are way out of line,” Betham insisted. “I’ve seen your ass out here plenty of times, stirring up trouble with patients and staff! If you’re not careful, you’ll be locked up! You need to-”

“Look, lady,” said Jim, to which Betham looked like she was about to pound him in the face, “Two people came through this hospital, and then promptly disappeared! Neither have been found! And what better place than a hospital for murder!”

As if on cue, the building shook with a rumble of thunder. Schneeplestein’s heart raced. What murders? The only people who had “disappeared” from the hospital was…

“Sarah left,” Schneeplestein said. 

His voice was soft, but the tone cut through the tension. Betham, Jim, and the two orderlies who had nearly grabbed Jim, all stopped and looked to Doctor Schneeplestein.

“I already told the police: She left, and that damned accountant went with her! Zey abandoned me, and took ze children! And I will never forgive them!” Schneeplestein’s fists were clenched so tightly they throbbed. It took all his willpower to stay as calm as he was.

“Jim,” Schneeplestein continued, “I highly suggest you leave zis place, and do not return unless your life depends on it.”

Jim looked as if he meant to say something more, but the lights in the hospital flickered, which sent a chill down Jim’s spine as thunder rolled across the building for a second time.

The orderlies moved in to take Jim away. Without a word, Jim turned, and allowed the orderlies to do their job without incident. Schneeplestein watched the man go, and did not relax until the man was beyond the doors.

“Baby, you better go home,” said Betham to Schneeplestein. “You had a long day.”

“I need to finish my shift…” Schneeplestein protested with half a heart.

“I think it will be alright if you go home early,” said Betham.

Schneeplestein took a deep breath, and sighed, and said, “Please let Nurse Malki and the others know that I have left?”

“I will, sugar,” said Betham. “You take care of yourself. And don’t forget your medication, okay?”

Doctor Schneeplestein pulled the stethoscope from his neck, and the cap from his head. He made his way down the hall towards the exit quietly, the weight of the day’s shift apparent on his shoulders.

“That poor man,” said Betham as he wandered out, “Doesn’t even know what day it is.”

 


	5. Clozapine

Schneeplestein’s apartment was small,with very little in it. He did not need much, and when Sarah had left, he didn’t have the heart to keep anything that she had left behind. So the apartment looked more like one of the hospital suites or a hotel room than an actual, lived-in apartment. Schneeplestein couldn’t quite leave his job behind.

That’s why Sarah left him.

Schneeplestein was not very hungry, but he knew that just a sandwich was not going to be very beneficial to him, so he heated up some ramen noodles and slurped it down while he checked through his messages. Most of them were from people trying to convince him to switch internet or phone or cable providers. One was from Malki who was calling to check up on him - what a sweet lady! - and the last one was from Jack.

_ “Hey, I heard rumour that you dreamed I didn’t exist, or something. That’s pretty funny! Anyway, call me if you need me. I’ll see you whenever-ever… you’re scheduled next. I have… Did you miss… say goodbye….” _

The phone message disintegrated into static from a bad signal on Jack’s phone, and the whole thing ended with a distorted laugh. Schneeplestein thought it sounded like Jack had a friend over, so he didn’t feel the need to call back. Instead, he sat his half-eaten cup of noodles aside and laid back on his couch, letting his mind drift.

Sleep never came easy to him. That’s part of what his medication was for. After the loss of his first patient, he had never slept well. He often blamed the nature of his profession, but that didn’t stop the therapist from prescribing him something for it. For being a doctor, he sure loathed taking medication.

As his body began to relax, his mind began to whirl with all the events of the day. The nightmares, and the incident with Jim lingered heavily in his thoughts while odd questions floated just behind the memories. He still could not recall just how long ago he had begun at the hospital. Surely he should have been able to remember his interview with the office administrator. Damien was his name? He could not quite recall, but he remembered a man in a black suit, hair swept to the side, a well-trimmed beard shaved close to his face, and brown eyes that looked to be of Asian descent. Come to think of it, the man reminded him a lot of...

_ “Hello, Doctor Schneeplestein?” _ It was Jim’s voice on the answering machine. The voice startled him. He must have missed the telephone ringing. Perhaps he had dozed off finally. His eyes popped open as he contemplated how Jim got his number.

_ “This is Jim from WJIM Channel 4 News, I’m the host…” _

The message suffered from a bit of static before it regained its audio.

_ “... and I just wanted you to know that I know what’s really going on. You can’t lie to us, Henrich. If you think you can keep hiding the truth then-” _

Henrich stood up from his couch, and in one swift, fluid movement he grabbed the phone, ripped it from the wall, chord and all, and tossed it across the room. He screamed as he threw it. The phone smashed into his television, cracking the screen, and tumbled down over the T.V. stand, taking several objects with it, including a picture in a frame that cracked on impact. The phone landed in a tangled mess, and the picture landed face-up.

A smile peeked past the cracked glass of the frame. Dark hair flowed around blue eyes that stared longingly at him. Schneeplestein knelt down and picked the broken frame up, handling it as if it would crumble away to dust in his hands had he not been careful.

“Oh Sarah,” he moaned, his voice cracking. “I’m so sorry. Please come back.”

Schneeplestein gave the edge of the frame a kiss, and set it back down on the ground. He didn’t have the heart right now to clean anything up. He was so exhausted. So instead he made his way into his bedroom. He would sleep for now. It would be better tomorrow. He just needed to get some rest, and get back to work. There were lives to save, after all, and Schneeplestein was not about to let anyone down ever again.


	6. Delusional Disorder

Jim wasn’t about to give up investigating Redemption Hospital. People had gone missing, and they all had this hospital in common. Oh sure, the police didn’t consider that to be a good lead. Thousands of people in the city had passed through that hospital over the years. But Sarah and Peter had gone missing. Henrik Schneeplestein had claimed they ran off together, and the police had found no evidence of murder, but Jim knew better. Jim could smell a conspiracy a mile away. What better place to hide a pair of murdered bodies than in the hospital? Schneeplestein lost Sarah to his accountant. It was the perfect motive. All he had to do was get back into the hospital and find a way to prove it. That’s where the shut-down wing came into play. The hall was being renovated, and was locked with a chain at night from the inside to prevent people from entering. All he needed was a bolt cutter.

Jim had obtained exactly that from his neighbor Billy. He waited for the hall beyond the doors to be clear before he even attempted to cut the chain. He squeezed the cutters with all his might, and he thought he broke the cutters when they finally snapped through. But when the link finally snapped free, he peeked back out the door to make sure nobody had heard him. Oh-so-quietly, he unwrapped the chain around the door handles and slipped quietly out into the hall. It was late at night, so the halls were dimly lit. He made his way down one of the other halls. As he crept along, he began to wonder where he could find some answers. If he could just talk to some of the residents there…

He heard shuffling behind him. He ducked down behind a bed that sat just outside a room, and slipped through the room’s open door. He backed up against the wall and waited for the person to pass. A familiar man wandered by. Even from the back he recognized who it was: Schneeplestein!

He watched Schneeplestein pause, then turn. Jim snapped back from view and held his breath. Had he been heard?! He could be in serious trouble if he was caught again. The shadow of Schneeplestein slipped into the doorway.

“Can I help you?”

Jim’s breath caught in his throat. Was Schneeplestein addressing him? He braced, ready to run, possibly fight. If only he had something to hit the man with!

“I’m here to help  _ you, _ silly,” came another voice. “It’s time for your medicine.”

“Oh, so it iz!” said Schneeplestein. “Thank you, Nurse Malki. You’re alwayz so sweet to me, alwayz looking after me. A true friend!”

“You’re very welcome,” said Malki. “Try not to wander the halls too much tonight.”

“Of course not, my dear…”

Jim listened to Malki shuffle off, and turned to the shadow cast across the floor, watching it intently. Schneeplestein shifted, turning one way, then another. Eventually, much to Jim’s relief, Schneeplestein wandered off in the opposite direction. Jim managed to relax slightly. Perhaps he was in way over his head. Perhaps there was another way he could investigate. Maybe if he talked to security or something…

Jim scooted towards the door. He peeked out very cautiously in the direction Schneeplestein had gone first and found the hall to be empty. Schneeplestein had apparently ducked into one of the rooms. He glanced in the other direction and saw that Nurse Malki was also out of site. Carefully, he slipped his way out, and made his way down the hall. His heart pounding, he told himself that once he got out of there, he would try to find information on Sarah and Peter. Surely there would be records of them in another state if they had simply left and moved elsewhere. It would be a safer bet than sneaking around a hos-

Pain snapped through the back of his head, and a bright light flashed across his eyes. His stomach lurched with nausea as the whole world doubled and swirled. Then it wobbled and tilted up to meet him, and smacked into his face. With the floor smashed against him, he realized had been hit in the head from behind, and was collapsed on the floor. As his vision slowly darkened, he saw someone step in front of him, and felt a hand grab his shoulders.


	7. Vitrectomy

“The patient suffers from retinal detachment,” explained Jack to the good doctor. “He’s having visual hallucinations as a result.”

“Vat sort of hallucinations?” Schneeplestein asked as he checked his mask and gloves.

“He claims someone hit him from behind,” said Jack as they made their way to the operating room. 

“Chances are he slipped, fell, and ze impact detached his retinae!” Schneeplestein replied. “Ze mental trauma has gotten to his noggin!”

Schneeplestein turned his back to the doors and pushed through them so as not to touch anything with his clean and gloved hands. When he turned to face the patient, he saw a familiar face lying unconscious on the table.

The good doctor smiled and pulled over his tray of tools, and patted Jim gently. “Don’t vorry, Jim! Ve will take care of your eyes! Just lie still! Not like you have much of a choice!”

Schneeplestein then called for a pair of wire speculums. Upon obtaining them, he placed one on each of Jim’s eyes to pop the lids open. Then he pulled up his scalpel, and lowered it carefully. The blade sliced into the side of the eye. Blood and fluid began to spill. Jim’s whole body lurched suddenly.

“Jack!” Schneeplestein called, “I think I hit a nerve! Hold ze patient down!”

Schneeplestein continued to work despite the writhing. Blood went everywhere, staining the good doctor’s hands. As he dug in deeper, Jim flailed again, moaned loudly. In one deft movement, the entire eye came out and Schneeplestein dropped it in a dish. Schneeplestein moved over to the other eye and began to dig in.

Jim screamed.

“WE NEED ANESTHETIC!” Schneeplestein screamed, “NURSE!!!”

Schneeplestein popped out the other eye and tossed it on the tray. He screamed for Jack to assist him as Jim continued to convulse, but when he looked to Jack for help, Jack wasn’t there. Instead, he saw only his reflection in a broken mirror through a bathroom door.

Schneeplestein looked around confused. The nurse was gone, too. The dim lights of the room flickered softly above him. Blood covered the hospital bed that Jim was in. Straps held Jim down as he continued to scream in pain. Schneeplestein hands were bare and covered in blood. A pair of mutilated eyes stared up at him from a TV tray of half-eaten food. In his hand was a shard of mirror.

Amidst the horrific screaming, everything came flooding back to him. He saw Sarah in his mind kissing Peter right there in the hospital! He attacked Peter, and Peter grabbed Shneeplestein by the neck. Peter began to choke him. His best friend was choking him! The good doctor lashed out with a scalpel. He saw the blood as he sliced into Peter’s torso. He watched the man’s guts literally spill out of him. He saw the horror in Sarah’s eyes as he turned on her and cut into her chest. He saw her bones crack open as he dug into her ribcage with precision while she screamed. Her heart was exposed. Still she screamed. He cut into her lungs. Still, she screamed. Why wasn’t she dead yet?!

Her scream warped and changed. Schneeplestein was snapped back into the present as Sarah’s scream became Jim’s scream. Realizing what he was doing, Schneeplestein dropped the glass and screamed for a nurse.

Time slowed down to a hellish crawl as several orderlies, and the security guard rushed in with a pair of doctor and nurses. The orderlies and Security grabbed Schneeplestein and threw him to the ground as the doctors and nurses pulled Jim - bed and all - out into the hall to rush him to the Emergency Room.

The Security officer slapped a pair of handcuffs around Schneeplestein. He felt a slight jab in his neck, and when he turned to see what happened, he saw Nurse Malki with a syringe, and a look that was simultaneously horrified and apologetic at the same time. His vision blurred, and he could feel the effects of the drug kicking in instantly.

“Tell my children…” said Schneeplestein, “...Tell zem I am sorry…”

As the drug overcame him, and he slipped into unconsciousness, the last thing he heard Nurse Malki say was: _ “Henrik, you don’t have any children…” _

 


	8. Withdraw

_ “...And in other news, Redemption Hospital is under investigation for the mishandling of a mentally ill patient. Sources say that former Doctor Henrik Von Schneeplestein had retired from the practise after the loss of his wife Sarah Schneeplestein. Incidentally, Schneeplestein’s accountant, Peter Little, and his wife, also named Sarah, had gone missing after a visit to Former Doctor Schneeplestein while he was a short-term patient in the mental health ward of Redemption for mental recovery. After the investigation into Peter and Sarah’s disappearance went cold, our very own Jim, former anchor and host…” _

The television flickered off. There were only six people still in the bar, and none of them had touched the remote. It was a quiet bar, filled with kitschy English-themed items and mirrors hanging on the walls. The smell of beer and fried food wafted down the main bar where the men sat, each of them with various drinks and snacks.

“Oh come on!” one of the guys, already a few beers in shouted.

A few of the men mumbled and groaned as the bartender fiddled with the remote trying to figure out what happened while the tipsy man began to complain that he wanted to know what happened.

“I can tell you what happened.”

The men all stopped their grumbling and turned to the sixth man down at the end of the bar. In his brown trench coat and slicked back hair, he didn’t seem entirely out of place, but the thing that made the men consider the gentleman at all was the bandages wound tightly around his eyes.

“How in hell would you know what happened?” the drunk man slurred. “What in hell happened to your eyes, buddy? And who the hell are you?”

The man in the bandages tipped back the last bit of whiskey in his glass. The light over him highlighted the now-white streak in his hair, casting a dim spotlight on him as if to set the stage. Setting the empty whiskey glass aside, he laced his fingers together, and smiled.

 

_ “I’m the Host.” _


End file.
